Time to powder coat

[armednfree]

I am finding much better results if I powder coat the bullets right after I cast them. Just when the come down to room temperature. The only thing I can figure is there is no time for oxidation to take place. But whatever, it works that way for me.

[popper]

Makes no difference. Year or 2 later is fine.

[armednfree]

Disagree. I've tried it on bullets I've had stored. It worked but took a whole lot more shaking then didn't coat as well.

[bmortell]

I cast, inspect and place them on baking tray after each is inspected then heat them warm but not plastic melting hot before dumping into the shaking tub. some say to do it, I don't know if there's a scientific reason but it works good. maybe the added temp in the tub changes something with humidity and static or something. this might be what your noticing try some older castings and heat them before shaking.

[NyFirefighter357]

The HF powder doesn't work as well as others but warm bullets will definitely help the HF PC stick. I saw this tested with either elvis ammo or FortuneCookie45LC that found HF PC covered better with warm bullets. (Just cool enough to hold)

[bmortell]

ya if you can get HF powder to work that's great but with the amount you can make per pound might as well get fancier powder. by my rough math using HF powder only saves 15% of 1 penny per boolit so even tiny coverage improvement justifies the cost imo.

[MrHarmless]

ya if you can get HF powder to work that's great but with the amount you can make per pound might as well get fancier powder. by my rough math using HF powder only saves 15% of 1 penny per boolit so even tiny coverage improvement justifies the cost imo.

I'm definitely on board. I bought HF red on discount, and it works well enough, but it always takes me two coats to get decent coverage. And that makes me sad.

[Dragonheart]

I think a more likely explanation is the lack of moisture in the bullets when they just come out of the oven.

Moisture (humidity) will almost completely kill the static charge giving spotty coverage at best. Heat, even a little helps the powder bond. Since it has rained every day here in the Gulf Coast I have cast and coated literally tens of thousands of bullets recently and if it were not for preheating I wouldn’t have been able to coat at all. Since I vibrate tumble coat several hundred bullets at a time I can preheat in the 150-175 degree range, but that is the top end and I monitor closely.

When I was first getting into PC trying to learn as much as possible, I watched a professional pull a heated motorcycle frame out of the oven and spray it. Wow, what a difference, absolutely beautiful, perfect PC finish. I couldn't wait to try heating my bullets, but I quickly learned you can get them too hot!

The proof is in the photos: Yesterday it was raining and humidity 100%. Same bullets, same tumbler, same powder and minutes apart. The only difference is the first three bullets in the photo came out of my preheated batch and the last three I did without a preheat just to show what I would have gotten.

[Sig556r]

I water quench my CBs out of the mold so they have to be pre-heated prior to PC tumbling. HF red works great (20min bake after PC flow) for me as well as poly-based PC (10mins after flow). I also water dump out of the oven & apply light BLL after drying. My method, may not be your cup of tea, but it works on all barrel without leading.

[Conditor22]

In my experience, time after casting has not been an issue for me. Let me clarify, I put all my freshly cast boolits in zipper bags.



As long as they stay clean and have not started to oxidize I've never had a problem.

Lately, I've started warming the boolits on my oven before coating, I put a metal grate or ? as a spacer and set a pan of boolits on the oven to warm. As long as you can touch them barehanded they aren't too hot. This helps me with PC'ing in the winter/ damp months

[Chainsaw.]

Huh. Beings I live in the pacific northwest I’ll have to try warming my bullets. Humidity is as common as air, and liberals around here. Definitely curious to try it. Nice results for sure.

[FLINTNFIRE]

Ha I like that answer about the rain and liberals , I am getting new spot for casting and powder coating ready thinking if I had a wood stove in the shop it would take the moisture out pretty quick.

[Wild Bill 7]

I live in Florida where humidity is a normal thing. Last week we had very low humidity in the afternoon and I was able to powder coat some cast boolits from two weeks ago. I had really good results. I am going to try the preheating with some Harbor Freight powder I have. The very first time I used that powder it worked great, but now it is nothing like now. Before Smoke had powder I bought some Powder by the Pound and it work pretty good. Smokes powder is the best and I don't worry about the humidity nearly as much.

[farmerjim]

I have no problem PCing a year after casting.

[cwlongshot]

I usually coat days after casting. But recently have been casting and coating same day. What I never do is size directly after casting. Ill always wait at very least a week before sizinf any cast bullet. (Usually a couple weeks). Also tour powder. Dont leave it open, seal it in double freezer ziplocks and remove all air everytime. I haven’t found hot or cold to be a peoblem. But humidity def is and keeping air off keeps moistyre OUT OF the powder.

I like to cast and set in a basket. I wear thin gloves usually when casting. When complete I come inside, wash hands and cull with clean dry oil free fingers. I leave in the baskets for a week or so and coat and transfer to zip loc bags. (Nice heavy ones are online and eBay) If I dont PC in a few days Ill package and store raw cast same way.

I agree that clean warm bullets coat best and find best results with warmer bullets. Even just inside roommtemp warm to outside cold coating. In summer I simply lay out in the hot sun to warm them.

I have been buying same bins as you see in Grmps pics and they are working great. If I can ever finish the expansion on my loading room, Ill have a dedicated area for the boolits too! (Instead of staxked under my benches & on the floor)

CW

[RP]

After looking this thread over it looks like Location storage and weather are the problems.

[Iron369]

If you’re gonna preheat, make sure it’s not too much. Ask me how I know.

[rockshooter]

I also discovered that during the preheat stage the broiler element is turned on so it gets really hot! What was most interesting was that the powder coat contained the little lumps of lead in nice neat lumps.
Loren

[OS OK]

It's hard to convince someone to buy the best PC they can find because of the price difference over the HF PC, then it's again hard to convince people about the looks of their final product. I suppose an ugly PC'd cast will shoot just a good as one made to look it's best...that's all in the eyes of the beholder and what they think is 'good enough'.



One of the aspects is the time it takes to get the PC to adhere to the cast...how long you shake and what process you use to do that, for me...shaking for long periods gets old quick...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xi2gDLxNlxQ

Yes...I know, standing them individually takes more time than baking them in a lump and doing the water dump but here again it's what you determine that's good enough for what you want in the end.

Looking at the whole process from casting to PC'ing the greatest time savings is to be found in the sizing process...you might want to consider building an 'upside down sizer' to increase productivity...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XcvhKHVn7gU

There's many ways to make a fast sizing press, here's the way I built mine...

https://thereloadersnetwork.com/2018...wn-press-what/

[Dragonheart]

It's hard to convince someone to buy the best PC they can find because of the price difference over the HF PC, then it's again hard to convince people about the looks of their final product. I suppose an ugly PC'd cast will shoot just a good as one made to look it's best...that's all in the eyes of the beholder and what they think is 'good enough'.



One of the aspects is the time it takes to get the PC to adhere to the cast...how long you shake and what process you use to do that, for me...shaking for long periods gets old quick...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xi2gDLxNlxQ

Yes...I know, standing them individually takes more time than baking them in a lump and doing the water dump but here again it's what you determine that's good enough for what you want in the end.

Looking at the whole process from casting to PC'ing the greatest time savings is to be found in the sizing process...you might want to consider building an 'upside down sizer' to increase productivity...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XcvhKHVn7gU

There's many ways to make a fast sizing press, here's the way I built mine...

https://thereloadersnetwork.com/2018...wn-press-what/

OS, As usual you reply with plain old common sense and I guess being somewhat anal like myself helps.

I personally just can't grasp the concept of those in a hobby that accept, as Smoke put it, "OK rather than Right". It is their nail to drive and all they have to please is themselves. But I grew up on the old concept, "If it is worth doing it is worth doing it right". Not to say I don't have mistakes, but at least I start out trying to do everything the best I can.

A fast sizer really is the answer and I first started inverting a RCBS Rockchucker driven by a pneumatic cylinder, "Ram Chucker". It could do more than size. Then in 2015 I just set up a pneumatic cylinder just for sizing, "Ram sizer". It will size as fast as my old hands can pick up a bullet and drop it into the shoot. I originally built a pneumatic feeder for it, but to load the tubes of bullets to supply the feeder took a lot of time and it was the same process as dropping bullets into the single tube, so now that is the way I do it.